Atlético Madrid Back in Champions Final Against Real, as an Equal

MADRID — Two years ago, Atlético Madrid was the surprise team of the European soccer season.

Even without a global star like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, it edged past Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two powerhouses of Spanish soccer, to win the Spanish league, La Liga. Atlético then came within moments of beating Real Madrid in its first Champions League final since 1974 before eventually wilting in extra time. (Real won, 4-1, and claimed a record 10th European title.)

On Saturday, Atlético will once more challenge Real in a Champions League final, but this time it will not enter as an outsider, even against its far richer and more prestigious crosstown rival.

“I think it was a surprise to see Atlético reach the final two years ago, but I don’t think that anybody who has followed the team since can still doubt that Atlético has its place among the top teams in Europe,” said Paulo Futre, a former team captain of Atlético and Portuguese international. He added of the club’s Argentine manager, Diego Simeone, “There are no words to describe just what Simeone has done to transform this Atlético team.”

Since taking over as Atlético’s coach five years ago, Simeone has rebuilt the team within the financial limitations of a club budget that is dwarfed by that of Real and other larger European clubs, one that often forces Atlético to sell the rights to star players at season’s end.

In 2014, shortly after Atlético lost the Champions League final, three of the pillars of the team — goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, defender Filipe Luís and forward Diego Costa — left for Chelsea. (Courtois was on loan to Atlético from the Blues at the time, and Luís returned to Madrid after one season in London.) Another key player, Arda Turan, had his rights sold to Barcelona last summer.

Their replacements, however, have mostly adapted smoothly to the team’s configuration and to Simeone’s counterattacking style. Under Simeone, Atlético has stood out as a defensive fortress: It allowed only 18 goals in 38 league games this season and has won by shutout in more than half its games under him. But Simeone has also been able to rely on a newly formed tandem up front that pairs Antoine Griezmann, a French forward who joined the team from Real Sociedad, with Fernando Torres, who returned to Atlético, his boyhood club, last year after a long spell in England and Italy.

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Fábio Coentrão of Real Madrid was closed down by Tiago, left, and Juanfran of Atlético in the 2014 Champions League final.CreditLaurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Both are expected to spearhead a full-strength Atlético team in the Champions League final in Milan, a change from two years ago in Lisbon, when Simeone gambled unsuccessfully on an injured Costa, who had torn a hamstring in the season-ending league game against Barcelona.

While Costa managed to start that final, he hobbled off after only nine minutes. Simeone was forced to use one of his three substitutes to replace him, costing him at least one set of fresh legs in a game that Real Madrid tied in second-half injury time and then won with three goals in extra time.

“Atlético reached that Lisbon final with a very tired team and with some serious injury worries, after a massive fight for the Liga,” said Adelardo Rodríguez Sánchez, who played a record 511 games for Atlético over 17 seasons before retiring. “This season has again been very tough, but the team is reaching the end in good shape.”

On its way to Milan, Atlético knocked out two recent Champions League winners — Barcelona and Bayern Munich. And since losing the Champions League final two years ago, Atlético has had the upper hand on Real, winning five and drawing four of their last 10 games. Atlético’s only defeat in the rivalry was last year, again in the Champions League, when Real Madrid eliminated the team in the quarterfinals.

Under its new coach, Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid is also back in the final after an impressive but late challenge to Barcelona in the league race, with Real losing the title by a single point on the season’s final day. Real’s attacking trident — Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale — is among the sternest tests Simeone’s defense could have drawn; the three players have scored a combined 98 goals.

Futre called the game “a 50-50 final between two teams that really know each other well but could not be much more different in terms of how they play.” Zidane concurred with that assessment, and on Tuesday he smiled as he told a news conference that he was used to coping with pressure ahead of important games.

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Simeone, center, worked out his Atlético players in Madrid last weekend.CreditJuan Carlos Hidalgo/European Pressphoto Agency

“I’ve been a player and also had pressure, perhaps more as a coach, but I like it, even if we will suffer until the end,” he said.

The Milan final has been presented as Atlético’s opportunity to avenge the loss in Lisbon, in which Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos forced extra time with a late header. But Atlético’s players have pushed back at that theme.

“The final is not a revenge for that of Lisbon but an opportunity to make history,” midfielder Saúl Ñíguez, 21, told Radio Marca last week. He has been one of the revelations of Atlético’s season, particularly after his goal against Bayern in the semifinals helped seal his team’s place against Real.

Whatever the outcome, the crosstown confrontation underlines the dominance of Spanish teams in European play in recent years. Last Wednesday, Seville beat Liverpool, 3-1, in Basel, Switzerland, to win the Europa League for a third consecutive year. The victory ensured that a Spanish team will have won every European trophy in the last three years.

Bookmakers give Real slightly better odds on Saturday, perhaps bowing to its unmatched trophy haul in the competition. That does not displease Adelardo, the former Atlético player.

“It would not be normal for Atlético to be the favorite in such a match,” he said. “When I was playing, the only times we really hurt Madrid is when we started out as the victims.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B16 of the New York edition with the headline: Back in Champions Final, as an Equal. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe